THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE Starring Lorn Macdonald & More Will be Available to Stream

National Theatre of Scotland and Selkie Productions in association with Screen Scotland and Sky Arts will present The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Live from Leith Theatre - a digital stream.

Embracing the duality of the storyline and the period authenticity, the film has been shot in black and white. It features new electronic music by DJ and music producer Hudson Mohawke, acclaimed for his "genre-smashing" creative approach.

A cast featuring leading Scottish stage and screen talent has been assembled for this unique project. BAFTA Scotland award winning Scottish actor Lorn Macdonald takes on the role of Utterson. Lorn won the Best Actor Scottish BAFTA award for his portrayal of Spanner in the film Beats. His roles on TV include Bridgerton, Deadwater Fell and Shetland. He has also recently been noted as one of the top 25 theatremakers to look out for in 2022 by The Stage. Dr Jekyll is performed by Scottish actor Henry Pettigrew. Henry's screen roles include The Danish Girl as well as TV series The Crown and Guilt. He has appeared in previous National Theatre of Scotland productions Midsummer, Black Watch and Beautiful Burnout. They are both joined by Scottish stage and TV stalwart David Hayman who is playing the role of Sir Danvers Carew. David is a well know actor and director with recent film credits including In Like Flynn and Our Ladies. Peter Singh (Lanyon) has a prolific career on stage and screen, with recent film roles including Cruella and on TV, The Capture I and II (BBC) and Hard Cell (Netflix).

Alison Peebles (Poole) is an award-winning Scottish actor, writer and director. Her film work includes Where Do We Go From Here and Seven Lucky Gods and her TV work spans CBeebies hit Molly and Mack and River City. Tam Dean Burn (Councillor Begg) is a well-known Scottish actor whose recent screen work includes Annika, Victim and Trust Me. Ali Watt (Inspector Hay) has most recently been seen on television in Irvine Welsh's Crime and onstage at Pitlochry Festival Theatre in several productions including About Love. Scott Miller's (Tennant) most recent credits include feature film The Road Dance and the tour of Warhorse and The Wife of Willesden at the Kiln Theatre, London, Caroline Deyga (Mabel) has most recently been seen on stage in The Importance of Being Earnest and with The National Theatre in Peter Gynt. She appeared in Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour for The National Theatre of Scotland.

A gothic tale of double lives and inner demons.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Hope Dickson Leach and Vlad Butucea, returns to Edinburgh born writer Robert Louis Stevenson's original story which was published in 1886. The drama follows Gabriel Utterson as he enters a world of dark duplicity to uncover the identity of the mysterious Mr Hyde and the hold he has over Utterson's old friend Dr Jekyll.

In this version, Utterson's journey is set against the background and backdrop of Victorian Edinburgh, where the wealth of the breweries is contrasted with the poverty of the Cowgate Vaults, exposing an underbelly of dark truths and corruption. Concerned by his good friend Dr Henry Jekyll's recent behaviour, Gabriel Utterson is driven to uncover the identity of the mysterious and dangerous Mr. Hyde, to whom Jekyll is enthralled. Whilst on this search for the truth, Utterson finds himself seduced by the society of Edinburgh's rich and powerful, but beneath the glossy façade lies a grim and brutal reality. This is a Jekyll and Hyde reworked for a contemporary audience with the themes of power, class and masculinity brought to the fore.

A special feature length version of the film, in a new edit, will be broadcast on Sky Arts in 2023. When it was first broadcast in cinemas earlier this year it was the first livestream film, created and set in Scotland, to be seen by audiences in Scottish cinemas. The film was also streamed as live into cinemas across the UK.

The film will be made available free to schools from the Company's Education Portal from 24 October. More information about The National Theatre of Scotland's Education Portal can be found here.

Hope Dickson Leach is an award-winning film maker, based in Edinburgh, whose debut film, The Levelling won her a Scottish BAFTA and the inaugural IWC Filmmaker Bursary Award in association with the BFI. This is her second project with the Company, she also co-conceived and directed Ghost Light with National Theatre of Scotland in association with Selkie Productions. This project reunites her with Vlad Butucea, (one of the writers for The National Theatre of Scotland's Interference project) and contributing writer on Ghost Light.

Leith Theatre offers the perfect backdrop to film. The venue's historic backstage maze of rooms and hallways and outside facades were transformed into film set location scenes of Victorian Edinburgh. Other scenes were filmed on location around Edinburgh.

Leith Theatre is a legendary music venue, performance space and community resource in the heart of Leith, which was a gift from the City of Edinburgh in the 1920s. Its main auditorium has played host to sporting events, the Edinburgh International Festival and iconic artists and bands. Currently closed to the public, audiences will have exclusive access to the main auditorium during the theatrical film event, and

The very first film version of Stevenson's novel is believed to be a 16-minute-long silent horror film of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde made in 1908, based on a stage play. Since then, there have been over 123 films made, from animation to satire to horror, with versions filmed across the world.

Screen Scotland's support is funded through the Scottish Government and The National Lottery.

This hybrid production is part of The National Theatre of Scotland's growing On Screen programme which includes content for digital platforms and broadcast. Recent highlights include National Theatre of Scotland and Hopscotch Film's special filmed version of Adam commissioned for BBC Scotland and BBC which won the Audience Award for Best Film at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival earlier this year and Best Scripted TV in the Scottish BAFTA's 2021.

Edinburgh based production company Selkie Productions was set up by Wendy Griffin in 2014 to develop a slate of film and TV projects. Selkie produced Hope Dickson Leach's short Stronger is Better than Angry and Wendy Griffin was producer on Ghost Light for National Theatre of Scotland and EIF. Recently Wendy co- produced 'The Origin' which just premiered at LFF, and was co producer on Stephen Frears 'The Lost King' and Charlotte Colbert's 'She Will'. Selkie has several projects in development with Screen Scotland and BFI.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Live from Leith Theatre:

Dates: Streaming from 24 October until 6 November

On sale from 10 October

Prices: £10 and concessions available

Booking Information: www.nationaltheatrescotland.com

Access Information

The film is available as fully captioned, BSL interpreted, and audio described.

For access to preview screeners, please contact Jack Oliver - details below

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Hope Dickson Leach completed her MFA in filmmaking at Columbia University where she made three short films that played at festivals worldwide. While in New York she was assistant to Todd Solondz on his film PALINDROMES. Hope's award-winning thesis film, THE DAWN CHORUS, was selected for Sundance, Edinburgh, London and many other festivals. Screen International made her a Star of Tomorrow and Filmmaker Magazine named her one of the '25 New Faces of Independent Film'. Since her return to the UK, she has made further acclaimed short works for Channel 4, Film London, the UK Film Council, NOWNESS and The National Theatre of Scotland. Her debut feature THE LEVELLING, produced as part the iFeatures scheme (funded by BBC Films, the BFI and Creative England) had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2016 before screening at festivals all over the world. At the London Film Festival she was awarded the inaugural IWC Filmmaker Bursary Award in Association with the BFI, and in October 2017 she was named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit. She won a Scottish BAFTA for Best Screenwriter for The Levelling in November 2017. In 2020 she released a new short film, STRONG IS BETTER THAN ANGRY, as part of The Uncertain Kingdom project, and is currently developing several new feature films in the US and UK. In summer 2020 Hope created a film for The National Theatre of Scotland for the Edinburgh International Festival. GHOST LIGHT premiered to five star reviews across the board. Hope is a co-founder of Raising Films, a campaign to make the film industry more sustainable for parents and carers, and is a member of the new National Partnership for Culture in Scotland.

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